Wildlfie Bytes 7/07/09

Wildlife Mini-Bytes

ACT Kangaroos to be Shot in Nature Reserves

West Jerrabomberra Nature Reserve and East Jerrabomberra Grasslands will be targeted for a controlled culling of Eastern Grey Kangaroos from today, Friday, July 3. The ACT Government plan to cull up to 550 kangaroos in the two locations along with Crace Grasslands Nature Reserve and Kama South Nature Reserve. According to acting manager, parks and reserves, Daniel Iglesias the culling is necessary to protect endangered flora and fauna. "These endangered species include the Grassland Earless Dragon, Golden Sun Moth, Striped Legless Lizard, Perunga Grasshopper and the Button Wrinklewort (a perennial herb)," he said. Mr Iglesias said the kangaroos would be humanely culled by experienced marksmen. "The cull will be conducted according to a strict code of practice that has the endorsement of all relevant authorities including the RSPCA," he said. Rangers and security staff have been engaged to patrol the areas to ensure the safety of the public with warning signs also being installed at all entry points to the reserves. *CT

Callum Brae

Kangaroo shooting started in the Callum Brae Nature Conservation Park in Canberra on Sunday night. 550 kangaroos are to be killed in five "Conservation" Reserves. Local wildlife lovers tried to monitor the shooting, and while photos of some shooters and ACT Parks and Wildlife rangers was taken, the shooting appeared to be taking place well into the Conservation Park. It's possible the shooters may also be using night vision equipment. Further down this edition of Wildlife Bytes we include some media articles. We now know that sections of Callum Brae and possibly the other four Conservation Parks are under development proposals. After discussions with several key players and groups last week, the National Kangaroo Protection Coalition is now running a campaign asking overseas visitors to boycott Canberra when they visit Australia. There are still places in Australia where visitors can see wild kangaroos, and we will tell them where to go and see the wild ones! More details about this later. *WPAA

Kangaroos

Kangaroo farmers are expecting a leap in demand for the national emblem after Chinese trade authorities approved protocols for the importation of roo meat for human consumption. The Australian Financial Review reports that the breakthrough came after more than five years of negotiations and is expected to significantly expand the market for kangaroo meat exports, which are already worth about $100 million a year. Some regulatory hurdles need to be overcome but the Kangaroo Industry Association of Australia expects exports to China will be able to start from next year. The association, which plans to operate as a single desk for exports to China, has devised aggressive marketing strategies for promoting the low-fat, low-emissions meat. KIAA executive officer John Kelly said roo meat should fit well with Chinese cuisine, particularly with a style of game meat cooking known as yamae, or wild food, and with hot-pot dishes. *Stock and Land

Hippo Stuck

An over-heated hippopotamus got stuck after clambering into a 10ft water tower to cool down in South Africa. After happily splashing around for a while, the animal found it could not get out of the pool again, reports Metro. Luckily, a farm worker noticed water spilling over the side of the concrete container and spotted two enormous nostrils poking out of the tank. He immediately rang for help and, within hours, rescuers arrived at the farm in Alkmaar, just outside Nelspruit. Equipped with a hydraulic crane and a cage, hippo hunter Chris Hobkirk and his team from the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Association set to work. In a four-hour operation, they drained the tank and used poles to gently nudge the hippo into a 10ft steel cage before winching it to safety. Mr Hobkirk, who has rescued more than 180 stranded hippos in the past six years, said it was a tricky procedure but he was glad with the outcome. "Maybe we got lucky with this one. In the past, I have removed hippos from small dams. In those cases, the water levels have always been much lower so this was different." he said. *Network Item

New Rodent Populations Found

The latest survey of wildlife on Western Australia's remote Kimberley Islands has uncovered new populations of threatened rodents. Researchers from the Department of Conservation and Research recently returned from a study of nine Buccaneer Archipelago Islands as part of a three-year review of the region's biodiversity. Researcher Lesley Gibson says some of the most exciting discoveries were made on Lachlan Island. "We got golden bandicoots and golden-back tree rats on this particular island," she said. "This is great news because both those species have shrunk quite substantially over the years and now they only occur in the very far north-west of the Kimberley, so picking up both those additional island populations was a significant find for us." *ABC

Giant Worm Disappearing

When taxonomist Frank Smith discovered the giant Palouse earthworm (Driloleirus americanus) in 1897 by, he described it as "very abundant." Now sightings of the white, 3-foot-long worm are rare. The last confirmed sighting was made in 2005 by a University of Idaho researcher. Before that, the giant worm had not been spotted in 17 years, since 1988. It's been in a legal battle pretty much ever since but has not been protected under federal laws. Today AP reports the worm's fans have filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to try and get the worm protected as an endangered species. A similar effort during the Bush administration failed, but Palouse supporters hope for a warmer reception this time. *LiveScience

Tigers

Police in south-eastern Bangladesh arrested a man for beating an endangered Bengal tiger to death after it strayed into a village, a forest official said. The tiger had entered the village in Satkhira, which is close to the border with India, and residents beat it with sticks because they feared for their lives, the head official for the Sundarbans mangrove forest said. "The tiger did not kill anyone, but some villagers were afraid so they decided to beat it to death with large sticks," Aboni Kumar Bhushan said, adding that the animal's corpse had been taken away by forest officials for an autopsy. "Three villagers were injured as they tried to pin the tiger down," he said. The official said police were preparing to lay charges against the man who was the "ring leader" of the attack, although dozens had helped to kill the animal. Government figures show 18 people in Bangladesh were killed by tigers in the first six months of this year. All but one of the deaths were in Satkhira district. Twenty-one people were killed during the whole of 2008, according to another forest official, Mihir Kumar Daw. *ABC

Kangaroo Exports

Today a delegation from a key Aboriginal native animal protection group, Elder Robert Craigie Garruu and senior Food Safety Consultant Expert- Desmond Sibraa together with Mark Pearson of The Wildlife Protection Association of Australia will deliver a critical Report- ‘A Shot in the Dark’ to The Ambassador Mr. Zhang Jun Sai and Commercial Officers at the Embassy of the Peoples’ Republic of China in Canberra and Sydney and senior advisor to The Hon. Simon Creane, minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade. Mr. Garruu, President of Australian Alliance for Native Animal Survival said “There has been no consultation with my people about how opening up such a trade would affect millions of kangaroos which are our important and iconic totem. We have no option but to go and talk to the China people and the government ourselves.” AL NSW Media Release

Primates

Mining for a metal used in mobile telephones is driving monkeys, chimpanzees and gorillas closer to extinction. Users now are being urged to recycle unwanted handsets. Zoos South Australia at Monarto today launches the recycling campaign, `They're calling on you'. Tantalum, the rare and valuable metal used to coat capacitors in mobiles is derived from columbite tantalite – "coltan". The Congo River Basin contains 80 per cent of global reserves, but mining is destroying primate habitat, leaving at least 10 species at risk. * SA News

Rock Wallabies

Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve says its breeding program for critically endangered Southern Brush-tailed Rock Wallabies is going from strength to strength. Another three baby wallabies have been born, bringing the Reserve's total population to 14. Tidbinbilla senior wildlife officer David Dobrozszcyk says four wallabies bred in the Reserve were released back into the wild last year. "In 2008 there was a release into the Grampians of which four of those individuals were from Tidbinbilla, that's a tremendous achievement," he said. "Tidbinbilla's breeding as many as we can to supply as many animals as possible to bolster any return to the wild program." Mr Dobrozszcyk says it is a testament to the success of their breeding program. "We're working at our capacity here, we're trying to breed as many as we can, and we'll continue to put in a big effort and try and work towards releasing as many over the next five to ten years and putting them back into the wild," he said. "With a little bit of luck we'll see a few more rock wallabies out in the wild soon." *ABC
Ed comment; Pity they dont have the same interest in kangaroos.

Kangaroo Barbeque

Two years ago Tidbinbilla Nature Reserve near Canberra hosted akangaroo and emu meat BBQ as a fundraiser, but noone turned up except for few protestors. Last weekend the Canberra Botanic Gardens hosted similar fundraising BBQ with emu, crocodile, and kangaroo meat. We dont have any info as to how many people turned up, as the local protestors were all out trying to get photos of the kangaroo killing taking place in the other Nature Parks. What a tragedy for the Botanic Gardens, arguably one of the finest Gardens in the country, to be involved in such a bizarre and disgusting event. WPAA

Climate Change

Climate change is rapidly expanding the size of the world's tropical zone, threatening to bring disease and drought to heavily populated areas, an Australian study has found. Researchers at James Cook University concluded the tropics had widened by up to 500 kilometres (310 miles) in the past 25 years after examining 70 peer-reviewed scientific articles. They looked at findings from long-term satellite measurements, weather balloon data, climate models and sea temperature studies to determine how global warming was impacting on the tropical zone. The findings showed it now extended well beyond the traditional definition of the tropics, the equatorial band circling the Earth between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn. "There is also evidence that many Australian animal and plant species are moving south in an attempt to track their preferred climatic conditions," she said. "Some won't make it." *AFP Full story here http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i3pvMa3qnKteriBNMmA9DmxqyKxw

Cordyceps Nearly Gone This "natural viagra" is gaining popularity worldwide as an aphrodisiac, and is making its way in larger quantities from the Himalayan regions of India and neighboring countries through Nepal to Hong Kong and mainland China, where is sells for $1,500 to 3,000 per kilogram. Also known as yartsa gombu in Nepalese, this parasitic fungus develops on the head of a moth larva, hepialus virescens. The larva hibernates during the winter, when it gets infested by the fungus. As the winter snow begins to melt, smugglers set up tents at altitudes between 6,000 and 10,000 feet to catch the emerging larva and extract the cordyceps. In addition to possessing aphrodisiac properties, the fungus is said to cure heart ailments, asthma and other diseases. Experts and conservationists are warning that both the moth and the fungus species may soon be exploited to extinction. *TimesOL


ACT kangaroos

The ACT Government has announced more roos will be culled from Canberra's Nature Park. The cull of up to 550 eastern greys will begin on Friday and continue until the end of July. Sites at the East and West Jerrabomberra Nature Reserve and Grasslands and Nature Reserve, the Callum Brae Nature Reserve, Crace Grasslands reserve and the Kama South Nature Reserve will be closed during the operation. The Government says the cull will be conducted according to a strict code of practice that has been endorsed by all relevant authorities including the RSPCA. Rangers and security staff will patrol the areas to ensure public safety and warning signs have been installed at all entry points to the reserves. The news comes as the Defence Department continues its cull of roos on land at Majura. Canberra Nature Park district manager Daniel Iglesias says the kangaroos need to be culled to ensure endangered flora and fauna are protected. "We believe what we are doing is the actions of a responsible land manager," he said.

Reasons 'nonsense' The announcement of the cull in has sparked a fresh round of criticism from wildlife groups. Pat O'Brien from the Wildlife Protection Association says many people will be saddened by the cull. "Their whole argument about protecting grasslands is nonsense," he said. "Nothing would surprise us with the ACT Government, they've got a license to kill." However Commissioner for Sustainability and the Environment Maxine Cooper says there is an overabundance of kangaroos. "If we want to be a bush capital with viable ecosystems we actually have to intervene and do some of these hard things," she said. She says the cull will be controversial, but it is a significant step forward in land management. "If we don't control their numbers the very eco systems that they rely on will not necessarily be there in the future," she said.* ABC

An animal welfare group says it will lead an international tourism boycott of Canberra in response to two kangaroo culls being carried out in the ACT. The National Kangaroo Protection Coalition says it has 33 animal welfare groups with thousands of members who will urge a boycott Canberra in response to the culls of 7000 kangaroos at the Majura training site and 550 at the Canberra Nature Park. The group's spokesman, Pat O'Brien, said his group planned to circulate information about the culls to fuel International anger. He said he hoped the tourism ban would pressure Canberra's tourism industry to lobby the ACT Government to change its policy. ''We've been talking about it the last couple of days and we think it's one of the options we've got and probably the strongest option we've got to get the ACT Government to stop killing these kangaroos,'' Mr O'Brien said.

He said he could not provide a list of the members in the group due to some of their relationships with the ACT Government. He said he believed the Canberra culls were based on unproven science and were motivated by an ACT Government ''hatred with kangaroos''. Tourism Minister Andrew Barr said the boycott was misguided. ''While I respect the right of those concerned with animal welfare to voice their concerns, it is not fair for them to jeopardise the livelihoods of our hard-working and environmentally sustainable ACT tourism operators and the thousands of Canberrans they employ,'' Mr Barr said. *Canberra Times

Canberra's latest roo cull was officially under way last night as news of an international tourism boycott began to go global. Links to the story emerged on international websites and National Kangaroo Protection Coalition spokesman Pat O'Brien said the group had spread the news to contacts worldwide and was working on a website, possibly titled ''something like www.dontvisitcanberra.com Canberra Business Council's tourism taskforce chairman David Marshall said the boycott was potentially dangerous in an economic downturn. 'It's a very unwise to expect the tourism industry and the general business community to be implicated in something like this when there's an economic crisis on, everyone's finding it very tough,'' he said. Mr Marshall said the move could have a significant effect on the city's tourism industry, which employs about 14,000 people. ''The last thing you need is another impediment, or any negative publicity ... and they're very good at it, as you see they've got some international coverage.''

Mr O'Brien said the coalition hoped a boycott would pressure the tourism industry into lobbying the ACT Government. But Mr Marshall said the tourism business should remain distant from the controversy. ''We're not buying into whether it's a good idea or not, that's up to [ACT Environment Commissioner] Maxine Cooper and those other experts,'' he said. ''All we're saying is they shouldn't be targeting a particular sector and expecting us to lobby on their behalf, when the economic impact of it can be very devastating for many businesses who are currently struggling.'' But Mr O'Brien was unmoved last night, saying, ''They should be [alarmed] too, they sat back [during previous culls] and they watched and they said nothing. He said the Boycott was still in the planning stage, and it would urge tourists to come to Australia and visit other destinations to see wild kangaroos, rather than Canberra. *CT


Wildlife Smuggling

A man has been fined $4000 and ordered to pay $114 in court costs after being convicted of attempting to smuggle 12 pythons out of WA. Wildlife officers found the reptiles, worth up to $2000 each on the black market, hidden inside cloth bags in a car stopped on Eyre Highway in Eucla in March. Mathew Price, 27, from New South Wales, admitted attempting to export the snakes and unlawful possession of protected fauna during a hearing in Kalgoorlie Magistrates Court yesterday. Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) senior investigator Rick Dawson said the snakes, which included six pygmy pythons, four Stimson’s pythons, a Pilbara olive python and a black-headed python, were estimated to be worth between $10,000 and $15,000. "Every time you remove a native reptile from the environment it may interfere with the natural ecosystem in that area and can have detrimental repercussions for that species further down the track,” Mr Dawson said.

“We take the unlawful possession of protected reptiles and reptile trafficking very seriously and will investigate and prosecute the capture and trafficking of wildlife in WA in a bid to end this cruel practice.” “The pygmy and Pilbara olive pythons are endemic to the Pilbara, while the other reptiles are found in other parts of Australia including the Kimberley region,” Mr Dawson said. “Of the four species seized, only two may be kept under licence as pets: the Stimson's python and the black-headed python, provided they are obtained from a licensed dealer.” Anyone who has information about the illegal removal of reptiles or notices any suspicious activity suggesting that reptiles are being illegally removed should call DEC's Wildcare hotline 9474 9055.


Dingoes

An Australian wildlife sanctuary is carving out a niche exporting dingoes to foreign zoos, aiming to preserve rare bloodlines and shatter misconceptions about the native dog. Ms Watson, who once bred champion greyhounds and Afghan hounds, said the dingo is misunderstood. For a start, she said dingoes are not simply another dog breed, pointing out that it is a distinct form of canine as reflected in its Latin name 'canis lupus dingo'. Lyn Watson has dedicated more than 20 years to preserving the dingo, which is in danger of disappearing in its pure form due to interbreeding with wild dogs and human encroachment on its habitat. Ms Watson's Dingo Discovery and Research Centre in rural Victoria has about 30 of the animals, all DNA-tested to ensure they are direct descendants of the original dogs that arrived in Australia from Asia about 5,000 years ago.

She said an official declaration last year that the dingo was endangered in parts of Australia had led to a surge in interest from international zoos wanting to acquire a species until recently considered a domestic pest. The sanctuary recently supplied dingo pups to a New Zealand zoo and Watson said it has received expressions of interest from as far afield as Japan, Brazil, the United States and Europe. The sanctuary has also developed an unusual business sideline selling dingo droppings and urine by mail order around Australia. The odour scares off native animals such as possums, making it popular with homeowners and groundskeepers. However, Ms Watson admitted there was a long way to go in changing attitudes toward dingoes in Australia, where many still regard them as vermin best eradicated from the landscape.

Farmers in particular loathe the animals, which they blame for killing stock, and popular perceptions of dingoes have been soured by the deaths of two children. The first was the infamous Azaria Chamberlain case in 1980, when a dingo snatched a baby from a tent at Uluru rock in the central Australian desert, an event dramatised in the Meryl Streep movie 'A Cry in the Dark'. The second was when dingoes attacked and killed nine-year-old Clinton Gage in 2001 at Fraser Island off the Queensland coast, which contains one of the last pockets of pure dingoes in the wild. -- AFP Strait times


Seals

In a bid to save tens of thousands of baby seals being killed for their fur, Namibia animal rights activist are rushing to raise millions of dollars to buy out a fur company that buys the pelts. The annual commercial seal harvesting season officially opened on Wednesday with a quota of 85,000 pups due to be clubbed to death on the Namibian coast. "I got the offer from the Australian-based owner Hatem Yavuz to buy out his company for 14.2 million US dollars by mid-July and I have started an international online appeal to raise the funds," Francois Hugo of Seal Alert South Africa, a seal rehabilitation centre, told AFP by telephone from Cape Town. "I have placed the plea on YouTube and Facebook over the weekend requesting individuals worldwide to pledge 15 dollars each until the target is reached and many offers have already reached us," Hugo added. "Hatem Yavuz even offered to delay for two weeks the culling of the Cape Fur Seal pups and the shooting of 6,000 bulls by his Namibian partner companies which were allocated the quotas," Hugo added.

The original deadline set by Yavuz last Friday to raise the money by July 1 was too short, he said. However an official in the Namibian fisheries ministry said the cull would kick off Wednesday, as agreed. The ministry set a three-year rolling quota back in 2007 of 85,000 seal pups annually plus 6000 bulls each year to contain Namibia's total seal population of some 850,000 animals. The bulls' dried genitals are popular in China where they are used for traditional medicines. More than 3,200 online signatures were put on the Internet portal Facebook by late Tuesday with an additional petition by an Australian animal rights group launched separately, urging the fur company owner in an open letter to stop buying seal pelts from Namibia. In May this year, the European Union banned imports and exports of all seal products in their 27 member states, including transporting these products through the EU to other parts of the world. The sparsely populated southern African country is famous for its wildlife and deserts, especially along its Atlantic "skeleton coast". The seals live on a group of islands off the southern coast. * Network Item

A 2-year-old Florida girl died after being strangled by a 12-foot pet python, police said. The child was strangled by the snake overnight after it escaped from its aquarium at a home in Oxford, about 50 miles northwest of Orlando in central Florida, according to Sumter County Sheriff's Lt. Steve Binegar. Paramedics said the little girl was dead when they arrived. Her mother's live-in boyfriend will face charges for not having a permit for the snake, a Burmese python. The owner of teh snake stabbed the snake repeatedly to free the little girl, but the toddler had been bitten on the head. Pythons can kill by wrapping themselves around their prey. Jorge Pino, a spokesman with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said that pythons are not native to Florida and can easily grow to 10 or 12 feet.

Some owners have freed pythons into the wild and a population of them has taken hold in the Everglades. One killed an alligator and then exploded when it tried to eat it. Scientists also speculate a bevy of Burmese pythons escaped in 1992 from pet shops battered by Hurricane Andrew and have been reproducing since. "It's becoming more and more of a problem, perhaps no fault of the animal, more a fault of the human," Pino said. "People purchase these animals when they're small. When they grow, they either can't control them or release them." *FoxNews


Wildlife extinction crisis warning

The extinction crisis facing the world's wildlife could be even worse than previously thought, according to the latest analysis of species under threat. Conservationists who analysed the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species said that despite global pledges to halt wildlife declines by 2010, governments were not reversing the downward trend. The IUCN urged leaders to put as much effort into saving nature as they did into economic rescue packages, as countries were "utterly dependent" on the diversity of animal and plantlife. The report analyses 44,838 species on the IUCN Red List, revealing 869 species are extinct or have vanished from the wild, while a further 290 are possibly extinct. At least 16,928 of the species on the list are threatened with extinction. But as only 2.7% of the world's 1.8 million known species are on the Red List, this could be just the tip of the iceberg.

The analysis - carried out once every four years on the Red List - revealed that birds, mammals, amphibians and corals all show a continued deterioration in extinction risk. And an examination of 17,000 species showed that 30% of birds, 41% of amphibians and 51% of reef-building corals which are currently not threatened could be susceptible to the effects of climate change. The report also showed that almost two fifths (38%) of freshwater fish in Europe were under threat, while at sea more than a quarter of marine birds (27%) and the same proportion of reef-building corals are threatened with extinction. Craig Hilton Taylor, co-editor of the study said: "The report makes for depressing reading. It tells that the extinction crisis is as bad, or even worse, than we believed."* The Press Association.


Camels

The Federal Government is spending $19 million to control feral camels in Central Australia and $2 million to control cane toads in the Top End. The money is part of $400 million in funding for sustainable farming and environmental projects. Environment Minister Peter Garrett says the camel problem in Central Australia must be addressed. "This will be the most significant investment in dealing with this problem, which has become more and more critical in recent years," he said. "We do know that feral camels are causing a fair amount of damage to some parts of country. "[They are a] big threat to native plants and animals and a big threat to cultural sites of significance for Aboriginal people as well." He said part of the funding would be used to cull camels, which now number more than a million. The $2 million over two years for cane toad management would go towards community group activities. "In the longer term, clearly we would like to see eradication, but these cane toads are such a tough pest. "The work the community is doing in the Top End is really, really important. "So we are providing the necessary assistance for communities to continue to do that work. *ABC

Ed Comment; No innovative thinking here...all a "camell cull" will do is reduce numbers by a few hundred, and do nothing towards finding a permanent solution, but it's easier for the Government to throw some dollars at a shooters group rather than look at permanent solutions..


Wildlife Food Blasted

A farm shop near Middlewich has been slammed by an animal rights group for selling exotic meats like kangaroo steaks and crocodile fillets. Justin Kerswell, campaigns manager for Viva, told the Guardian he was ‘very disappointed’ to see ‘alternative’ food at The Harvest Store in Wimboldsley. He claims animals like kangaroos and crocodiles are treated horrifically for their meat and skins and is urging people to stop the ‘suffering’. Mr Kerswell said: “Some 75 per cent of the world's animals are facing extinction or are in decline so we should be protecting them, not serving them for dinner. “Exotic meat doesn't sound quite so appetising if you rename it 'dead wildlife'. “Each year, millions of kangaroos are shot for their meat and skins – the largest massacre of land animals on the planet. “Baby joeys are bludgeoned, shot or decapitated when their mothers are killed – the ‘worthless’ waste of the industry.

“The population of kangaroos has more than halved in the last five years. “In the wild, crocodiles live in dark mangrove swamps but now they are subjected to the horrors of the intensive farming system. “Crammed into tiny, filthy pens, they are barely able to move, let alone hide. “They are killed at three years of age in a number of extremely disturbing ways, for example, having a chisel driven into the base of the skull and a rod poked in to probe and destroy the brain.” The selection of meats, which also includes ostrich and reindeer steaks, is supplied to The Harvest Store by Alternative Meats in Shropshire. A spokesman said Mr Kerswell’s claims raised some important issues but insisted that the animals’ welfare is protected.

She said: “All of the meats on sale are a great experience to enjoy, but whether they are home produced in Great Britain – which many of them are, for instance, water buffalo, rosé veal, kid goat, and kobe beef – or whether they are alternative game meats, they are offered with an understanding of their environmental and welfare implications. “They are the result of production systems that are in keeping with welfare and conservation policies throughout the EU. “They are imported under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) whose aim it is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival.

“This means that the the products are either farmed, as with the crocodiles – usually for the production of leather, and as such they are kept in optimum condition to prevent harming the skin – or under a hunting licence in order to keep the population under control so that the ecosystem is not harmed, as with kangaroo or indeed our very own venison here in the UK.” But Mr Kerswell added: “The list of animals we are slaughtering for supper is getting longer and longer. What next? “Tiger chops, dolphin steaks and koala burgers? Please remember, wildlife belongs in the wild, not on a dinner plate.” Viva is a campaign group which promotes vegetarianism. The Alternative Meats spokesman said: “We would not dream of attempting to convince anyone who was a confirmed vegetarian to eat meat, as we believe that freedom of choice is a vital part of our society.” *Middlewich Guardian


Safari Hunting

The RSPCA is hoping to persuade Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett to reject the Northern Territory Government's plan to allow crocodile safari hunting. The Territory Government says traditional owners should have the business opportunity of allowing 25 saltwater crocodiles to be shot for sport on their land. It is considering more than 100 written submissions from interest groups and the public before putting the plan to the Commonwealth for approval. RSPCA spokeswoman Bidda Jones says the argument about offering Aboriginal communities new ways of making money does not stand up. "In the current management plan, there's no dollar value given for the revenue that might arise from this," she said. "There's currently trophy hunting of introduced animals on Aboriginal land. "There's no evidence that revenue from that actually does flow back to Aboriginal communities. "If there were evidence I'm sure that the Northern Territory Government would be presenting it."

Michaela Johnston from the Gulpulul Aboriginal Corporation in Arnhem Land says a quota of 25 crocodiles would not generate much income. She says her group hopes a trial of the plan will see it expanded. "We'd like to see the numbers increased to at least 100," she said. "So out of the current plan that they've got allocated for now in the new draft management, out of the 500-odd animals that they've got allocated, 100 of those animals should be looked at game hunting. "Twenty-five's not going to have a huge increase in employment." She said safari shooters would have to pass a competency test. "They're not just yobbos from out back wanting to blow [up] a crocodile," she said. *ABC

Ed Comment; Yes they are...yobbos from out back wanting to blow [up] a crocodile!


Please sign petition to protect the Grey Headed Flying-fox in New South Wales

http://www.thegreycross.org/



Thinking about Wildlife? Who’s going to watch over our wildlife when you no longer share their World? Well, we are! The Wildlife Protection Association of Australia Inc. will continue to forcefully lobby governments to do better with wildlife management, and by taking them to Court if necessary. We are currently working on developing eLearning projects, so students can become aware of the importance of our wildlife living in a safe and secure natural environment. After you have looked after your family and friends in your Will, think about wildlife. A bequest to the Wildlife Protection Association of Australia Inc. will ensure that we can continue to take a leading role in protecting and conserving our precious wildlife. None of the donations we receive are diverted to "administration". Every dollar we get through bequests or donations for wildlife hits the ground running! Talk to your solicitor, or if writing your own Will, add the words "I bequeath to The Wildlife Protection Association of Australia Inc. for the purpose of protecting wildlife in Australia (a specified sum), or (specified items including land or vehicle), or (the residue of my estate) or (percentage of my estate) free of all duties, and the receipt of the President, Secretary or other authorised WPAA officer for the time being shall be a complete and sufficient discharge for the executor(s)." You can also phone me for a confidential chat, as to how a bequest can help us work to protect our wildlife, when you are no longer able to. * Pat O’Brien, WPAA 07 54941890